PROGRAM STATEMENT

In today's global community, visual images are the primary form of communication. Images have the presence to communicate what thousands of words cannot. They must be analyzed and understood because they embody historical and psychological viewpoints used to determine cultural norms and political climates. To be unable to decipher a photograph's construction, implications and power is to be fundamentally illiterate.

The Photography Institute brings together today's noted and emerging artists, scholars and critics to provide a forum where they can explore contemporary issues in visual imagery and photographic image making.

Only by including diverse voices in these examinations can we address fully the profound issues of our time. If artists are to be visionaries, the gadflies of social and political injustice in our complex world, then we must also learn to engage our communities and take responsibility for that engagement.

Cheryl Younger
Director and Founder

The National Graduate Seminar is a forum for the discussion and debate of cutting-edge issues of critical concern about photography. The Seminar brings together 30 noted scholars, artists and critics with 20 emerging artists from graduate programs across the nation for an intensive two-week session. 

The objective is to provoke in-depth discussion about photography as an art form and to include more voices in that discussion. It encourages a democratic approach to the consideration of photography and ensures the inclusion of women and minorities, whose voices are often absent from the dialogue. A proceedings journal and post-Seminar projects ensure that students, artists and critics throughout the nation can take part. 

The National Graduate Seminar is the only forum of its kind in the field of photography.  All programs must be grant funded and 2004 will be the 13th year we have implemented the National Graduate Seminar.

Find out about the schedule of events for the 2004 National Graduate Seminar sessions that are open to the public.